Audioslave drummer says band could reunite someday

Saturday, August 6th, 2016

While the three instrumental members of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave are currently touring as part of the rap/rock supergroup Prophets Of Rage, drummer Brad Wilk hinted in a new interview with Alternative Nation that an Audioslave reunion could happen at some point. Calling Audioslave singer Chris Cornell “an amazing musician and a good person,” Wilk said, “The possibility of us making music together with Chris is always there. I don’t think anyone has any bad feelings towards each other in that band. I think that band had a really good run, and I think that it was time for us to move on, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Audioslave came together in 2001 after Cornell’s band Soundgarden broke up in 1997 and Rage went on hiatus in 2000. Audioslave released three albums between 2002 and 2006, all of which went Top 10, with their self-titled debut alone selling three million copies.

But Cornell left in 2007 to pursue a solo career, citing “irresolvable personality conflicts as well as musical differences.” He told us at the time that part of the problem was his desire to make a solo record: “Tom and I did have communications about the fact that I was gonna go make a record, and that I was tired of what ended up seeming like political negotiations toward how we were gonna do Audioslave business and getting nowhere with it. We had back and forths about that, and we also as a band sat in a room with other people trying to work this out on numerous occasions, and it wasn’t really happening.”

Time has apparently healed those wounds, however, with Cornell saying last year, “They were great guys, and I really enjoyed the experience that I had with them, so yeah, I would always be open to doing something.”

Wilk also discussed working on Black Sabbath’s 2013 reunion album, 13, on which he played drums as a replacement for founding drummer Bill Ward. Wilk said, “That was an absolute dream come true . . . However, even though it was just the most amazing experience for me, I wish that it could have been Bill Ward instead of me, as amazing as it was for me.”